My dad made beautiful lawns. I cultivate no grass. This sort of careful sidestepping is part of the way that one generation succeeds another, I believe. And in my case it’s also how I avoid the plague that’s even now striking Calgary. I’m talking of Taraxacum officinale, better known as pissenlit and dandelion. Apparently they’re spreading like crazy in Calgary, and the city can’t do anything about it.

The reason is that provincial legislation no longer lists the humble (and edible) dandelion as a noxious weed. Alberta, like most provinces, has a Weed Control Act that lets you — . . . [more]

There is a strong likelihood that a significant metric of Slaw readers are law firm associates. If this describes you (or if it doesn’t) you may want to consider a strategy that I have learned will help advance or secure your career: Read what your boss reads. First define who your boss is, or who you would like your boss to be. Next identify what the issues are that keep your boss awake at night. Monitor those topics and concepts. Be prepared to share what you find useful or interesting.

I am extremely lucky to have colleagues who send me . . . [more]

The Alberta Law Reform Institute (ALRI) has launched a new website. It has a new look, new address and best of all new features. 

The new website offers three easy methods of communication:

A Mailing List – Receive notices of new publications or any other significant activities. Be assured that this will not create a flood of messages in your inbox, but simply an occasional update from ALRI.

A Feedback Form – A quick method to comment on their work or provide your suggestions. You can find this option under the Your Views tab on the new website.

An . . . [more]

On Friday June 3, 2011, the Ontario government enacted the Integrated Accessibility Regulation under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. The Regulation gave force of law to three new standards to address barriers facing persons with disabilities in the areas of transportation, employment and information and communications.

It isn’t uncommon to read in local, national and international newspapers stories of domestic workers being ill-treated, underpaid and overworked. While Canadian employment standards offer some protection to domestic workers, this certainly isn’t the case across the globe.

With the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) International Labour Conference currently taking place in Geneva from June 1 to June 17, with the agenda including an item entitled “Decent work for domestic workers”, there are hopes that a Convention supplemented by a Recommendation will be adopted to afford what is seen as urgently-needed protection to domestic workers (see the ILO website for more . . . [more]

There’s been a good couple of years since the credit crunch kicked in that Law Librarians News and House of Butter have really quite enjoyed reporting the business of legal publishing.

Revenues & profits down at the duopoly, talk of Google Law and more; as well as a host of new ideas and concepts for the future of legal publishing. OK some of those ideas were either over ambitious or a little bit crackpot, but fun to investigate and report.

At least though, it felt for a glorious 18 months or so that change was in the air.

And change . . . [more]

From Dr. M Veerappa Moily, the Centre’s Minister of Law & Justice comes a Press Release:

The scope of this program is creation and management of the ‘National Legal e-library’ for 933 schools in India, Bar Associations, Government Legal departments etc. and meet the needs of academic librarians, students, faculty and young practitioners. It aims to provide a practitioners view and a comprehensive understanding of core subject areas of law.

Various technology tools that make the concept of E-Library indispensable are Easy Access to provide a campus wide access using IP Authentication, Results clustering to familiarize new users

. . . [more]

Generations of law students cut their research teeth on the Index to Legal Periodicals . On June 1, its publisher the H.W. Wilson Company and EBSCO Publishing announced a merger, under the EBSCO Publishing banner. . . . [more]

It is not surprising that many Canadian are cyncial of their federal Parliamentarians.

Example in point: Bills C-1 and S-1 have been published. Despite respectively being – in name – “An Act respecting the administration of oaths of office” and an “Act relating railways” – of course neither bill has anything to do with either topic and neither bill will pass first reading.

Apparently, it all has to do with a “custom” dating back over 400 years ago for “pro forma” bills. I didn’t find the explanation on LegisINFO or Wikipedia to be entirely satisfactory. Wouldn’t . . . [more]

At today’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), Apple’s Steve Jobs announced a new set of cloud services, dubbed iCloud, that will integrate with iOS-based devices, such as the iPad and iPhone, and Mac OS X. The new services will bring tight cloud-based data synchronization to Apple’s desktop, laptop and mobile device lineup.

iCloud will allow you to store all of your documents, calendars, emails, photos, and more in the cloud, and will automatically synchronize this data to all of your devices. Additionally, iCloud will make your music available across all your devices.

Backup services will also be incorporated into iCloud. . . . [more]

If you have not had a chance to attend ABA TECHSHOW, now is your opportunity to sample the quality of the educational sessions. The ABA Law Practice Management Section, producer of the annual technology conference has, for the first time, released most of the slide presentations from the sessions at ABA TECHSHOW 2011. Take a look at the range of topics covered each year so you better understant why over a 1,700 lawyers, IT staff, paralegals, legal assistants, and product vendors attend this 3-day conference in Chicago.

The educational sessions are just one part of TECHSHOW; the . . . [more]

Finding something on Social Media 101 for the right audience can at times be a challenge. There are plenty of basic documents for business, marketing and Public Relations. But what about lawyers, librarians and others? What if your audience does not care about “building a strategy” but just wants to know what social media is and how it is used?

On a recent hunt for just such material, I came across a nice briefing series from the Canadian Library of Parliament written last year. The series includes five publications on selected topics:

• Social Media 1: Introduction by Michael Dewing (Feb

. . . [more]